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Mary Beth Price, BJ '71

Mary Beth Price, BJ '71, has become a master in the media buying and planning business in the past 30 years and has garnered many honors for her work. She was the founding president and director of the Procter & Gamble Alumni Network and has served on the boards of several organizations, including Kendle Research, Inc. and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. She won the "Best Woman in Advertising Award" from McCall's/Ad Week in 1993 and was named a "Media Maven" by Forbes/Ad Age in 1996. In her hometown of Cincinnati, she was named "Business Person of Year" by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce in 1993 and was a Silver Medalist for the Advertising Club of Cincinnati in 2001. In 1999, she took an education role as the Richard A. Forsythe Chair of Entrepreneurship at Miami University. Price shares her thoughts on starting her own business and what it takes to be successful.

You're the founder of your own company. How did that work?
In 1985, I founded my own media planning company. The company's original name was Media That Works, and now it's called Empower MediaMarketing. We have about 150 employees, and we bill around $300 million in media billings. We have a variety of clients. I opened the company with just one: LensCrafters. I even bought my own television time! I hit the pavement, worked hard, and built it up over time. It's just one of those things that you dog at it long enough, and it produces results.

What have you faced in your career path so far?
I began my career as a media buyer and planner for the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency in Chicago in 1971 and then joined Procter & Gamble in 1974 to do strategic media consulting with a wide variety of P&G brands. In 1980 I joined A.C. Nielsen and established Nielsen's standalone (and profitable) Consumer Research Division. I was hired back to P&G in 1982 and developed innovative approaches to syndicated/cable programming and media training for P&G. In 1985, I left P&G to found Media That Works (now Empower MediaMarketing) and served as CEO until 1997. I am still on the Board of Directors of Empower MediaMarketing.

What is one of your favorite J-School memories?
When anyone asks me about my journalism background at Mizzou, I tell them that the most important thing for me was the quality of my fellow students. I felt that they were very driven, very competitive, in-tune. I still feel, to this day, that this is critical to business success. The product that you end up delivering is based largely on the colleagues you surround yourself with. Missouri is able to attract high quality students because of its reputation and its programs.

What is something about you that may surprise people?
I am a single-engine airplane "instrument-rated" pilot.

What do you think is the one characteristic or trait that the most successful business owners have?
Persistence.

What is your latest read?
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Success depends on understanding and working with globalization.

What are five adjective that describe you?
Empowering, strategic, abundant-mentality, fearless, persistent; there it is again!

What is one place you'd like to visit?
Mt. Kilimanjaro.

News Releases

• Sept. 10, 2007: Empower MediaMarketing Partnership Establishes Benchmark for Collaboration